Insights
Zero Bug Policy
Fixing bugs first is key to sustainable innovation
Technology faces two opposing forces. Creativity and innovation lead to great products and services. But shorter times-to-market can mean a greater chance of bugs appearing. Fortunately, there’s a way to mitigate the negatives – and PX puts it into practice every day.
It’s called a Zero Bug Policy. Essentially, it means bug fixes take precedence over every other software-related activity, including development of new features. Meaning the “base layer” we build new features on stays solid by design, with the platform always improving before extending.
When a bug appears, it’s all hands on deck
We accept, even celebrate, that “move fast and break things” does lead to unexpected events among all the sites and services we connect. The PX platform connects a number of APIs, and a small update in one can lead to unexpected behavior in another – sometimes called “feature interaction”. To combat this, PX has a take-no-prisoners attitude to bugs: if you see one, drop everything and deal with it. Issue resolution takes priority over all other software development.
Size doesn’t matter
It doesn’t matter whether that bug is a minor annoyance, or a business-busting game-changer. Because whatever its size, a bug stops our customers maximizing their results. This means all bugs are treated with high priority. The criterion applied to any report: is it a bug, or not? No shades of gray. If it is, all other work stops and our team’s energy gets focused on solving it, as quickly and smoothly as possible. Irrespective of how big it is or how much pain it’s causing.
In a dynamic market, making things work matters
Another reason for a zero bug policy is the way a bug left unattended starts to snowball. As they create more and more side effects, fixes and workarounds get layered on elsewhere without addressing the root of the problem. And that’s bad. So the policy helps us neutralize each bug where it matters – at the source. All that matters to PX is solving the problem for our customers, so they can continue using high-quality data and timely insights to achieve maximum bang per buck. On every lead they buy.
PX’s zero bug policy isn’t an optional extra. It’s a philosophy, defining our whole approach to product development and enhancement. Because a bug left unsolved might affect millions of lead buys a month.